City building tips

Ask yourself two questions: what is the biggest problem in this city, and what do people THINK is the biggest problem in this city? The two are never, ever the same.

Konigsberg had 7 bridges, but they were smaller than either OP's bridges or London's bridge

Paris actually didn't reach a million before the revolution.

The population of smiths was nowhere near 10%. That's the full urban population of crusades-era Europe.

And they didn't cross a tidal river and harbor.

something interesting: city of antwerp during the early renaissance when it was the wealthiest trading port in europe
still it had no bridge, mostly due to the whole "tidal river and harbor" thing

not the whole 3 houses on the other side of the river thing?

What's all the fuss about bridges and tides?

Moving water wears down bridges, and they need repairs, which costs money - amount depends on how big the bridge is, and how much the water moves.

>What's all the fuss about bridges and tides?
It's difficult to build a bridge in big bodies of water that moves so much, and you don't want to block a harbour by putting a big fuckoff bridge there.

And in some cases there's a significant industry in ferrying - at one point London in its 1-bridge period had something like 60'000 rivermen, which also provided a pool for the naval reserve, which defeated a proposal for a second bridge

also there needs to be a significant incentive to build a bridge

in the case of antwerp the areas directly across the river were relatively poor and the river itself, while still wide at that point quickly narrows down upstream and loses its tidal characteristics so a bridge in an upstream city like ghent was significantly cheaper

and like the other user said: there was thriving ferry industry which fulfilled the need to cross the river

a major trading port does not need to have a bridge, nor does it as many people assume need to be located directly at the estuary of a river. If a river can be sailed its often significantly better to have the major port several miles inland